It cannot be disputed that the future belongs to the youth. Nurturing talent from a young age has always been key to the success of any football club. However, there is no golden rule on how to develop and support young players into the football stars of tomorrow. So it is important to engage with new ventures which come to market and to explore the unexplored.

Competition among clubs is great and under some of the recent changes, the focus on youth development is even greater. Effective and productive football academies are becoming more of a necessity and clubs are having to pay even more attention to the correct development of their youth.

CHALLENGE

Capelli Sport and Sport eXperience join forces to call out innovative companies (startups and scaleups) for a challenge. We invite international companies with a strong focus on accessories, clothing, data or equipment for football academies. We select 5 companies for an unique opportunity to present for representatives of football academies. All companies have a proven product/service with a track record. We focus on Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands and to exchange knowledge, insights and contacts between the countries.

CAPELLI SPORT

Capelli Sport has become the partner of, and the official outfitter for, a number of internationally recognized sporting organizations, professional clubs and international teams. Currently, Capelli Sport distributes its world-class training gear and apparel in more than 25 countries worldwide. In the USA Capelli Sport is involved in and owns football academies providing their outfits for over 45.000 talented youth players.

BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH AND VVV VENLO

We integrate the challenge into an interesting exchange of knowledge between clubs. 3 speakers will inform you how they run their football academy. They share their vision, their results and how they see the future of their academies. Mirko Sandmöller of Borussia MönchenGladbach as well as Roger Bongaerts of VVV Venlo are both head of the football academy. We encourage both speakers to seek interaction with the attendants to share and exchange insights and knowledge.

We also introduce Dr. Gerd Thissen, founder of the German Football Academy. His CV is impressive and he can be seen as an authority in German football development. As author he published several football textbooks (also in USA, England, France, Hungary, China, etc.), numerous journal articles and DVD's on the didactics and methodology of the football game with a focus on children's and youth football, school football, goalkeeper training, tactics training and football specific gymnastics.

PROGRAM

March 3, 2020, we meet at the Capelli Europe skybox in the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena, home to MSV Duisburg (Germany). You meet representatives of football academies and clubs as well as innovative companies in an inspiring environment. We expect around 30 football clubs / schools from Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands.

12:00 Welcome with coffee / tea and light lunch

12:30 Opening by Kay Mourheg (CEO Capelli Europe GmbH) and Arno Hermans (Founder Sport eXperience)

12:45 VVV Venlo; Roger Bongaerts (head of youth academy)

13:15 Playermaker (eng)

13:30 Advanced Sports Instruments (swi)

13:45 Borussia MönchenGladbach; Mirko Sandmöller (head of youth academy)

14:15 Break

14:45 Clubmodul (den)

15:00 Gerd Thissen (founder Deutsche Fussball Akademie)

15:30 Soccerlab (bel)

15:45 Smartgoals (ned)

16:00 Network drinks / meet&match

17:00 End

Tickets are € 45,- and only for representatives of football clubs and football academies/schools.